It's hard to ignore the buzz about social media that's been happening over the last few years. We know that social networking is a great tool for engaging with current and potential customers and giving your business a personality. But did you know that interacting on social networks can also help you be seen in search engines? Google, Yahoo, and Bing also couldn't ignore the fact that these networks were providing as-it's-happening news and social recommendations, so they started incorporating this type of information into their search results to meet the growing demand. This presentation covers the evolution of traditional search engines with the integration of social signals and real-time results. It also covers how you can optimize the following platforms to help gain some of that much coveted real estate on the SERPs (search engine results pages): · blogs · YouTube · Facebook · LinkedIn · Twitter

1. Search Goes Social Using Social Media to Gain Visibility in Search Engines

3. SEO, PPC, Link Building, etc

4. Lover of all things Internet Marketingfacebook.com/kasimarie linkedin.com/in/kasimarie twitter.com/kasi_marie

6. How social media is being incorporated into search results

7. Using the following channels to help gain visibility in SERPs:

8. Blogs

9. YouTube

10. Facebook

11. Twitter

14. Customer Engagement

15. Humanizing a companyPhoto Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthamm/2945559128/#/

17. Too many profiles (twitter, facebook, foursquare, etc)

18. What’s the ROI of all this work?

19. I’m not social; I don’t know what to say!Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/exalthim/2150224411/

23. It took Google News 1 hour and 20 minutes to report the story after tmz.com posted it; it took 3 hours and 17 minutes to be an auto- complete suggestion for search queries.

24. Also in 2009, a well-known blogger tries to find out what’s going on at the Waldorf Astoria while he’s there (due to a ruckus).

25. A Google search turned up nothing; a quick search on Twitter revealed that Matt Damon was filming a movie there.

26. With the explosion of social media use, people were turning to their social network for help, general questions, referrals, etc.

28. Integrates search results from friends: Flickr, Twitter, Quora, blog posts into SERPs in February 2011

31. Added aggregated data and updates from public “Pages” on Facebook

33. February 2011 they are integrated within the search results like Google’s friends results

35. How Search Engines Work Search goes to Google’s database* Google searches database for relevant web pages * Database is compiled by software “spiders” Type in a search query at Google Secret ranking algorithm applied to web pages You get your results! Start Here

37. Google uses over 200 variables in its algorithm

38. Algorithms are “secret” but some of the variables are known Like backlinks

39. Links: Original “Trust” Signal Which website will rank better for “SEO”? Websites Joe Schmo’s Blog about SEO Less Links = Less trust & authority = possibly lower rankings Wikipedia Entry about SEO More links = trust & authority = possibly higher rankings

40. Getting Backlinks to Your Site The “Good” Way Websites should have such totally awesome content and information, other websites will naturally want to link to them! The “Bad” Way Buying link placements on websites, link exchanges, software that spams blogs & forums, any way that is “manipulative” and done with the sole purpose of getting a link back to your site. These are “web spam” tactics.

41. It can be hard to resist temptation… Spammy Links Natural Links Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/josevnz/8030459/

42. Recent Headlines “How Organized Spam is Taking Control of Google’s Search Results” “Why Google is Choked With Spam” “Google’s Decreasingly Useful, Spam-Filled Web Search” “Is Google Losing its Fight Against Spam?” “How Google is Creating a Web of Spam” “Why We Desperately Need a New and Better Google” Photo Credit: http://blog.random-squeegee.com/labels/spam.html

44. Your videos, blog posts, tweets, facebook shares could potentially show up in search engine results, expanding your reach.“Sites that aren’t getting some social exposure (mentions and links from social media sites) won’t do well. (Yep we keep saying it, and it’s true – you need to be on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn).” - Search Engine Journal Photo Credit: http://www.psfk.com/2008/07/pronoun-of-the-moment-me.html

45. Things You Can Do to Help You Be Seen in the SERPs

47. WordPress or maybe BlogEngine.NET for sites hosted on Windows servers

48. Blog platform should have the ability to make friendly URLs for SEO purposes

49. (www.mysite.com/blog/i-love-chocolate/)

50. Search Engines love blogs - Use keywords in your titles

51. Get over not knowing what to write about

52. Write about things in your industry that people are searching for

53. Write about questions you commonly answer

55. Instead of writing a blog post or an FAQ, turn it into a video

56. You don’t need studio-quality production to make one

57. Keyword-rich title for video and use “tags” to list your keywords

58. Example: “how to train your dog” returns 10,500,000 results in Google

59. That’s pretty competitive!

61. Having a business page will most likely give your business another search result for searches on your company due to the authority of Facebook

62. Good for reputation management

63. Fill out all your business information completely, including web address

64. Commit to interacting on a regular basis

66. Having a twitter account for your business will most likely give your business another search result for searches on your company due to the authority of Twitter

67. Good for reputation management

68. Individual tweets can show up as a search result in some cases

69. You can use Twitter’s internal search to search for your keywords and follow/engage people that are using them

70. Use keywords in the bio section – Google will sometimes use this as the description in the SERPs

72. Having a company page will most likely give your business another search result for searches on your company due to LinkedIn’s authority

73. Good for reputation management & credibility

74. Fill out all your business information completely, including web address

75. The website links can have anchor text (i.e. “merchant account”) that can link to whatever address your specify – good for SEO if you have a website

76. There are many new features, including embedding videos, showcasing products and services, and customer recommendations

77. Use keywords that you’re targeting in your company’s description and productsand services

78. Don’t let all of this stress you out. Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/programwitch/1483037699/

80. Find what works for you

81. Stick to it

82. Use social networks to:

83. Gain more visibility in SERPs – control your own brand

84. Help out your website for the long haulPhoto Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/greenlagirl/2129972742/